Kansas City

Today is August 1st, which means that I will be moving into college in 12 days for the last time. When I was a freshman I didn’t think this time would come fast enough, but now I am not ready for it. I have developed a wonderful support system, made numerous late night QT runs, cried over stupid boys and assignments (mostly assignments…God bless Jewell), but most importantly I have made memories and I am comfortable here. The thought of graduating and being thrown into a new environment is terrifying. I know I will find my way, but there is a small part of me that wonders what will really happen after I graduate.

College has allowed me to have grow tremendously as a person and I am now comfortable with who I am. I have this sense of adventure that keeps nagging me whenever I look at jobs and apartments in the Kansas City area. I do love where I currently live, but it will always be here. I would be perfectly content with getting a job right after college and settling down with the hopes of finding someone to share that adventure with, but I don’t know if I just want to be content. I have no commitments to anyone right now, and relatively few responsibilities so now is the ideal time to get lost in the streets of Paris, play soccer with the kids of Tonga, eat foods I can’t pronounce, and meet people who see the world in a different way and learn from them. Some might say that is what college was for, but for me college was a time to learn and find myself so I could be non-judgmental and have something to come back to when I get home.

Right now I don’t know a lot, but I do know somethings…I want to see God’s creations whether that be the views from atop a mountain or having a conversation with someone in a far away country. I also know that everything works out with God and my family behind me.

I hope your week is off to a good start! I had class today and then was off to my internship and now I am about to watch some good ol’ baseball.

Anyways, I was needed a couple more dresses to wear to my internship and I wanted to be able to dress them up and dress them down, so I went with a simple grey high- neck, swing dress. I paired it with my silver bling sandals from Target, some earrings from Nickel and Suede and my favorite black Ray-Bans from Ditto.[see side note]

[side note]: Nickel and Suede is an awesome company who have been online, but just opened up their first store in my town. The earrings they have to offer are light-weight and extremely trendy. In addition to earrings they have some great leather bracelets that would go great in a stack with a boyfriend style watch. I can’t wait to see what earring is selected as July’s earring of the month.

Adulting: the act of having to behave like an adult and do adult like things.

This is something that is going to be a very real thing for me in a just a little over the year, but even though I have not graduated college yet I am definitely talking strides to being a fully emerged in the adult world of work, bills, and free-time.

This summer I am keeping myself rather busy with school, an internship and work. My internship involves me being a digital media marketing intern so I will be learning quite a few things. The company I am working for is located down in the heart of KC in the eclectic district called Crossroads. I live about 20 minutes (when you are not traveling during rush hour) from the business and as I am driving to the internship, into the city I feel a little bit of a rush wash over me. I love seeing the tall buildings off in the distance growing closer and I like driving through the city with buildings stretching up high above me. I think one of the reasons I like the city so much is there are always things going on and so many places to go work get work done or to go out and have a good time. I like having options and trying new things so that is just one of the reasons I like the city. Anyways, back to adulating. My first day at my internship was just a couple days ago and I am interested to see how a company (specifically a start-up) company works. In the morning we have a short meeting (called stand-up because we literally all stand around a table to keep it short.) that goes over what is going on in the company and people discuss what they are going to work on for the day. After that people seem to settle into their respective places and develop their flow for the day. Lunch comes and people converse, but then everyone settles back in until the end of the day. I thought I would get really bored quickly, but the time did not drag and I managed to get several of my tasks done or at least a nice head start on them. When it came time to leave I joined a chunk of the city on the commute home. I felt a sense of accomplishment and excitement again because I felt like an adult and I could see myself doing something similar each day.

So moral of the story, I really enjoy working for a business because I like having my own space, a team to work with, a task list, and I like being able to go to out to lunch at different places and dressing up for the work place (oddly enough). I also know that I want to work for a larger company that has room for advancement and involves products or people that I can stand behind and traveling around wouldn’t be such a bad gig. With having little to know experience I know I am going to have to really work to get someone to invest in me so I can invest in their company.

I know this seems to be a reoccurring theme, but I apologize for not posting frequently but life sure gets crazy when you are busy procrastinating final and papers, working to try and pay for the IV of coffee you will need to cram for those finals you spent procrastinating. With that though, I have finished my junior year of college and while I was watching this years seniors walk across the stage I couldn’t help wanting to cry, not because they were leaving, but because in exactly one year that would be me. In one year I will be leaving behind the place that in the past three years has become my home where I get to eat lunch with my best friends every day, who I only have to walk about 10 feet down the hall to see the people that matter most, and the place that I can’t actually get work done in the PLC. I know the relationships I have formed in the past couple years won’t fade, but we won’t be as close physically every day so that is what I will miss, but that does mean Sunday Brunches with mimosas and Saturday night stories.

Going into this semester people said it would be the hardest semester yet so I definitely buckled down and prepared for the storm, but honestly it was not as terrible as I thought. I did have to work for my grades, but I still managed to pull off a very solid 4.0 earning my spot back on the Dean’s List. With a successful semester I also got offered to be an RA {Resident’s Assistant} next year in the building where I first lived. In addition to that, I have just started working at a hospital as a clinical associate. I will have a lot on my plate semester with 20 hours and those two commitments, but next year is bound to be a blast regardless.

With this semester over and some fun memories in the book I look forward to having some more adventures this summer with my Little and her boyfriend when I am not at summer school, my marketing internship, or work…summer may not be what it was when I was little {pool days, naps, and too much tv}, but after a long day I am sure down to enjoy a glass a wine now that I am 21.

I pray and hope that I will post more frequently because I am planning to have some good nights.

It is Monday again, which definitely sucks and the only way I plan on surviving this week is that next week is Spring Break (and my 21st birthdayyyyeee)!! This past weekend I made the choice to get off campus and take a mini road trip.

Last week was CRAZY from homework to interviews for internships so I definitely needed a break. I took off Friday afternoon with COMO in my sights. My sister is a freshman at Mizzou so I thought I would stop and spend the night with her before heading to St. Louis.

I go to a super small private college in my home town so when I go to Mizzou it is exciting and I want to just go everywhere. There happened to be a film festival so there were a ton of people downtown. I love downtown Columbia because there are so many cute shops and I was on he hunt for a birthday dress. Unfortunately I did not find it until we went to the mall later that night…but I did find one. After shopping we went to dinner at the Campus Bar & Grill. It was about 7:30 and it was already packed. It was quite and experience and I think it would be fun to go back in a couple weeks;). After dinner though we didn’t do much, and just headed back to the dorm to watch Fuller House and order cookies from Insomnia.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to start the drive to St. Louis. The car was about a mile away so I decided to make it my morning jog. I made it to St. Louis by 8:15 so I had about 45 minutes to kill before my sister’s color guard performance so of course I got coffee. I watched her kill her solo and then I headed off. I went to the outlets in hopes to find a tote that I could bring to clinical and in that adventure I managed to get stuck in traffic and nearly run out of gas. After that crisis was barely avoided I set out back for KC.

Most people hate driving, but for me it is a game and I enjoy the thrill of catching cars and following other cars that take the lead.

This weekend I did spend quite a bit of time in the car, but the weather was gorgeous, I got to see the people I love and I got to get away a little bit.

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything, but I just returned from my Outward Bound 14 day canoeing trip in the Everglades. I have been up traveling since about 4am Florida time or 3am Kansas City time. I am definitely beat, and glad to be home but I have a lot to share and things to reflect on.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the new year and is having their weekend start off with a bang. I am absolutely exhausted, but don’t worry I won’t be falling off the face of the technology world anytime soon so I will be posting regularly now!